Welcome to the Treehouse Community

Want to collaborate on code errors? Have bugs you need feedback on? Looking for an extra set of eyes on your latest project? Get support with fellow developers, designers, and programmers of all backgrounds and skill levels here with the Treehouse Community! While you're at it, check out some resources Treehouse students have shared here.

Looking to learn something new?

Treehouse offers a seven day free trial for new students. Get access to thousands of hours of content and join thousands of Treehouse students and alumni in the community today.

Start your free trial

General Discussion

Posted by Ryan Burgess
Ryan Burgess
593 Points

What's the best way to study?

I'm taking Front-end Web Development and Full Stack JavaScript. I've been on and off for awhile but now I have the time to really spend on it. I spend between 3-6 hours a day learning. I'm pretty good in HTML and CSS and getting there in javascript. How should I balance them? Should I only focus on one subject or should I do what public school does and split my time up between them? Maybe have days set for each subject.

2 Answers

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,126 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,126 Points

Everyone has thier own learning style, and a simultaneous learning process might work for you where a more sequential one might be better for someone else (it would be for me). The nice thing about self-paced learning vs. public school is this time you can choose what works best for you.

Mitul Patel
Mitul Patel
24,890 Points
Mitul Patel
Mitul Patel
24,890 Points

Hi Ryan,

Like Steven said everyone has their own learning styles. If you feel like your not studying the best way, it could be a good opportunity to take a step back and do a some self reflection to assess where you are to where you want to be.

You could do this by keeping a journal keeping a log of your study habits or taking notes after each course/track. This doesn't have to be complicated, you could simply just record:

  • Positives: What your confident about after completing a course/track
    • e.g I understand how to use conditional statements in javascript
  • Negatives: What you feel that you have done poorly on in the course/track
    • e.g I failed to understand what data attributes are and how to use them
  • Delta/Improve: How you can improve for the future
    • e.g I need to read the Mozilla Documentation on data attributes to get a better understanding

Reflecting back on key takeways can help you manage your personal study time if you know you have a limited amount of time to study.

If you feel you really confident in a particular skill, why not build something simple with it to get some more practice or try something new your curious about. Having a side project is a good way to exercise the fundamentals. Since it is your side project you can devote time as you see fit.

I'm a tactile learner so doing some side project helps me learn, personally.

I hope this helps!